“New Blood” is our weekly feature spotlighting new bands from around the world! See below for info on how to submit. Now, check out some killer new shit…

Band name:
SLUGBUGS

Date & location formed:
November 2014? At the Stasi and the Holidays show at the Legion Of Doom in Columbus, Ohio.

Reason for forming:
We really wanted you to need two hands to count every punk band in Columbus. We also wanted to learn new instruments and play shows in cities we’ve never been to.

What are your lyrics about?
The lyrical content portrays life in all its agonizing pain and its nonsense.

How would you describe your sound?
I like to describe the music as the Swankys covering the Screamers because those are two of my favorite bands. We have a lot of fuzz and a keyboard player so it’s probably somewhat true. Our goals in sound is to push our very limited abilities into something we find interesting and exciting.

What’s in the future for this band?
Fuck a future! We have a tape, were working on a VHS tape with My Kind of Town fanzine. A split tape with Cool Life? In June we are playing Dumb Fest in Springfield, IL, then heading out east for a week or two. Hopefully lots of weekend tours to lots of small towns! Fat pocket punks, put out a record for us!

Reason for forming:
To have fun and play music and connect with other soft hearted weirdo punks.

What are your lyrics about?
Standing alone in the abyss knowing the ones you love will return. An ode to our young lost friends. Blindly pursuing new truths with passionate abandon.

How would you describe your sound?
Melodic punk.

What’s in the future for this band?
We just self released a 6-song demo. Crapoulet Records, based in France, is putting out a release of our demo as well. We’ll tour, hopefully, as we work on new material.

Reason for forming:
Ty (bass) and Alex (drums) were looking to create a new project with Jimmy (guitar). Khari (vocals) randomly responded to a flyer posted at the rehearsal space and ended up being a solid fit. We just wanted to play straight-ahead hardcore that wasn’t by the books.

What are your lyrics about?
Searching for and maintaining one’s PMA. Pushing back against racism, sexism and social oppression of all forms. Keeping the torch burning for hardcore music.

How would you describe your sound?
Firmly rooted in the tradition of NYHC bands like Madball, with thrashy passages a la DRI. There’s splashes of Oi! and funk tossed around, but at the end of the day it’s just hardcore punk. Fast and in your face.

What’s in the future for this band?
Playing more shows. Recording more songs. Just putting our nose to the grindstone and making it happen.

Josh Levine is an Oakland staple and a man about town. He has a storied past, from youth spent running amok in the Tenderloin of SF to playing with FLIPPER and the INSAINTS to creating magical organic vegan donuts since 2008, with flavors such as salted caramel (my favorite), lavender, and green tea matcha. I take everyone to Pepples Donut Farm to eat, especially out-of-towners and touring bands. Pepples serves delicious and creative vegan food and you can find their donuts all over the Bay Area (with locations expanding). If you’re into conscious consumerism, avoiding GMOs and being a part of the solution, then you’ll probably dig his joint. Here is Josh of Pepples Donut Farm…

Why vegan?
What are you, a pamphlet? Do you not know that eating animal products is bad for you, the animals and the dirt? I thought you were punk. You have to care about dirt. And because that’s how donuts should be — they’re the best clean food for people to eat.

Why doughnuts?
I dunno what doughnuts are, but are you asking me about donuts? Because vegan donuts are my favorite oxymoron. Because vegan donuts are distilled anarchism. It’s because vegan donuts are a pure expression of the connection of the spirit and the body. Just like fuckin’ yoga. My vegan donuts arose out of the fundamental disharmony between the individual’s search for meaning and the meaninglessness of the universe. It’s a part of my quest toward understanding all that is the “I am.” And stuff that’s fried tastes good, everybody agrees on that. Donuts are the vehicle and we are the drivers. Every one of us. Let’s go!

Tell us about your donuts.
They are all organic ingredients and tasty. We really nailed tasty. They are also made with organic fruit and interesting ingredients that add to the good flavor of the donut. We make cake donuts and raised donuts, like jelly donuts or twists and fritters such as apple, banana and kabocha. Yummy vegan donuts.

What would a “Tim Yo” donut taste like?
It would be like a sour apple glaze, maybe kinda salty.

I’d imagine a little bitter too, maybe slightly crunchy like a communist? So, you’re old, did you know Tim Yo?
Know Tim Yo? Well, yes. We were friends…almost. I saw him at shows when he moved here or whatever… He dosed me one time at a party at the New Method warehouse. I’ll never forget that. He was a part of the scene and I knew him for years and years. Later, he dated my bandmate Marion from the INSAINTS. He was always a fair man, had a great sense of humor, and always knew about the cool political stuff I never took the time to learn. One time he called me a hippie at a Gilman Street Project meeting. He said, “Josh, quit talking like a fucking hippie,” and I will never forget the look of disappointment and annoyance on his face that day. I worked on making Gilman Street because I was inspired by his vision and leadership. Good times, but you can read about that in the 924 Gilman book.

Hey old man, tell us stories! You were in FLIPPER? Tell us more…
I used to get on stage with FLIPPER in ’78. For a few years I would play bass, do a couple songs. Kind of like being in the band. I roadied for Hüsker Dü once in 1980. Shows were great in the ’70s/early ’80s — sucks for you young kids today, ha ha ha. Then we did a FLIPPER reunion. Basically, I was in a bunch of bands because I play bass. I also played with the INSAINTS, NO ALTERNATIVE, SO WHAT, SUMMERS EVE, FANG, POOR IMPULSE CONTROL and WHAT WENT WRONG. I’m OK at bass, I guess.

Back to Pepples, why is it called a “farm”? Wait, why is it called Pepples?
Because it’s where we “grow all the donuts” so it’s a donut Farm. At first it was Peoples Donuts. Then I got tired of that, there were tons of peoples this, peoples that — so I changed it to Pepples. Fuck branding, right? Anti-marketing! We really are still confusing people. Fuck advertising too, while you are at it. They are donuts not corporate GMO shills. You donut need a name or brand when you have a donut. We are changing the name again soon. Maybe to Paul or Robert.

Do you have a lot of punks working for you? Eating your donuts?
Many punks, famous and nobodies and everybody in between, have worked for me — exes, friends, strangers and punks galore. We even went through a hippie phase.
Great way to lose friends is by having them work for you. Luckily, I have a lot of friends. I have a joke I like to tease punks at the shop with — sometimes I’ll say, “Punks pay double,” and I’ll look at them all serious. They think it’s hilarious when they realize I’m joking. But the donuts have universal appeal, I see all kinds of folks picking up a box at our shops. We donut discriminate.

How did you become a restaurant versus just a mere donut farm?
The Donut Farm is a restaurant so it seemed dumb not to make food. When we started it was me and a buddy cooking brunch, I used to make all the food and roast all the coffee in a wok. It was crazy good times. Somehow we got through the rough patch and now it runs pretty well.

Who do you let vend your donuts all over the Bay Area?
They are sold by some cool coffee shops, friends, and at Rainbow Grocery. There is some out-of-date info on our crappy website. We are pretty much at capacity with all that.

Is Pepples still DIY or are you going to sell out soon?
We are DIY all the way. Just people making real stuff for real people to eat. It’s highly unlikely that I will sell out. How much do you have? My two sons will probably keep it going when I’m too old to work the fryer. And if by “sell out” you mean “come out” — I did that years ago.

What are your next plans? I know you recently extended your restaurant hours.We are trying to figure out what to focus on. We have a new bakery line making muffins, scones, tarts and yam rolls that are all vegan and organic. That and expanding our manufacturing base to add one in a different part of the state. More donut punks! There is a lot going on.

Any last words, Josh?
I am grateful to be asked for an interview, thank you. 2014 was an interesting year for us with business growth, and I am grateful for all of my friends and employees as well as those who have helped me every step of the way from our humble beginnings in the back of Eclair Bakery in Berkeley paying $10 an hour to use the donut fryer until now. Our tremendous successes are only due to all of the people whose love and contributions created them (am I talking like a hippie?).

Also, I want to take a paragraph urge everyone to pay more attention to the sources of your food. There is a good amount of manipulation going on. Green-washing. You think it’s OK, but it’s not the very stuff you think you are avoiding is being shoved down your throat in broad daylight by the corporations that run the food industry. They are really sneaky, so get informed — because the government won’t protect you, and Whole Paycheck won’t protect you. In Europe, most of these toxic foods are banned, but in the USA a battle is being fought on your plate every day. So, eat consciously and remember your dollar is your vote, so donut vote for that crap!

VATICAN DAGGER – “Not to Be/The Mess” 7″
Kudos to VATICAN DAGGER for foisting their hate on us this early in the year. Birthed from Louisiana shit and boasting the always deadly Gary Wrong on guitar, VATICAN DAGGER take classic neg-vibe aggression and make it an earworm. It’s great to hear punk rock this dark and ugly imbed a hook in the listener… It just makes the pop camp look like bigger idiots. The first great punk record of 2015, I’d say.
(Total Punk)

— Mitch Cardwell

RIXE – “Coups et Blessures” EP
Fuck me. Everyone kept saying, “This record is great, this record is great I love this record, oooooooohhhhhh this record is the best thing since I learned how to go potty in the toilet not all over my leg,” So, of course, I’m all, like, “Eat my fukk, punks, the shit ain’t that good.” And here I am, eating my own fukk, muttering to myself in disbelief, “It really is that good, it really is that good, it really is that good.” All of you monkeys who think that simple Oi! punk shits are cool now and want to join in the fun by writing some dumbass generic two-chord punk, need to listen to this right the fukk now. Because nothing here is hard—but everything here is good. Filthy sounding and brutally straightforward punk rocks with riffs to last you the rest of the year (with the action on “Larmes de Crocodile,” I’m good through summer at least) and, ugh, those vocals are just fukkn perfect!! I know everyone is gonna compare them to CRIMINAL DAMAGE, and they are surely going to fill that void for a lot of punks, but Paris rockers RIXE are dirtier, and dare I say punker? Seriously, this is so fukkn good.
(La Vida Es Un Mus)

Being from Oklahoma, I’m always a little surprised and stoked to see that punk is still happening there, and seemingly bigger and healthier than when I first got involved in the 1980s, during the days of NOTA, Death Puppy, No Direction, Brown 25, and some band called the Flaming Lips (their first 12″ EP is actually pretty damn good psych-punk). The mere idea that something like the recent Everything Is Not OK fest seemed impossible back then. But seeing these photos and the crowd, things have definitely changed. This all went down at the Conservatory, which is in Bricktown, if I remember correctly. Honored to add these to the Monday Photo Blog. This was one of those times it was hard to narrow it down to a small few photos. I do plan to run more in the near future. Also, you can see more in the latest issue of MRR. You know, the printed version of the site you’re on.

Everything is Not OK at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

Big Zit during Everything is Not OK at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

Everything is Not OK at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

The Wrong during Everything is Not OK at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

Sin Motivo during Everything is Not OK at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

Blind Dog during Everything is Not OK at The Shop in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

Fuckheads during Everything is Not OK at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

Wiccans during Everything is Not OK at The Conservatory in Oklahoma City, Sunday, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Garett Fisbeck)

Send your tour photos, bands that have come through your town, the best of your local bands, etc. to: *protected email*. Include your name, a link to your website (or flickr, Facebook, or whatever), and the band (or subject), date and location of each photo. Just send your best photos — edit tightly. Three to seven photos is plenty, and it’s best to send pictures of different bands. Please do not send watermarked photos. Please make your photos 72 dpi and about 600–800 pixels at the longest side. Not everything sent in will be posted, and a response is not guaranteed, but we do appreciate all of your contributions. Feel free to submit more than once. Thanks!

John from ARTIMUS PYLE / CONQUEST FOR DEATH just chillin’ with an eagle in Mongolia.

Greg plays some new records and talks about funny pictures from Mongolia
KONTRA:DICTION – Just Another Day
LATEX – Bitter Fate
SUN BATHER – Waiting
TWISTED – Aureliano
RITUAL CONTROL – It Will Never End

Alex gets kicked out of punk, but then forces his way back in
FUGUE – Trim
DAILY RITUAL – Desperation In A Police State
DIVERS – Tracks
NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS – Rainy Day

Outro song:
THE LOVE TRIANGLE – The Situation Is Excellent

Maximum Rocknroll Radio is a weekly radio show and podcast featuring DIY punk, garage rock, hardcore, and more from around the world. Our rotating cast of DJs picks the best of the best from MRR magazine’s astounding, ever-growing vinyl archive. You can find MRR Radio archives, specials, and more at radio.maximumrocknroll.com. Thanks for listening!

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Out now! MRR #414 • Nov 2017

History of Alabama Punk part 1: Birmingham, BAD EXAMPLE, Bay Area heartthrobs MIDNITE SNAXXX, São Paulo’s CANKRO, Chicago’s C.H.E.W., Period Bomb, Sweden’s BRING THE DRONES, PADKADOSRA from Budapest, UNSANITARY NAPKIN from New Zealand, and in memoriam: Victoria Scalisi of DAMAD.